Rescuing Marilyn
by ElliotJA
Summary: The Doctor and her friends travel to a distant planet in response to an urgent call for help...from MARILYN MONROE? What is going on? One thing is certain: The Doctor is determined to find the answer at all costs... DEDICATED TO AVAKHON KHINSHARRI.
1. Chapter 1

It was in a distant galaxy, far from the one containing the small but important planet called Earth, that a small, blue, four-sided object floated in the star-speckled blackness. Though from the exterior it appeared to be a police public telephone box of the type seen on British streets from the early to mid-twentieth century, closer examination would have shown it to be a highly advanced time/space machine called a TARDIS, built by the Time Lords of the planet Gallifrey. The reason it looked incongruously like a police box was because the ship's chameleonic circuit - which would normally have enabled it to change its' outward form to blend in perfectly with whatever environment it materialised in - was broken, and had been broken for a long time...or perhaps its' owner simply preferred it that way. Standing at the craft's open doors, protected from the freezing void of space by an artificially-generated atmospheric shell, stood its' sole Time Lord occupant, and one of her human companions. The Time Lord - or Time _Lady, _according to some - went by the name of the Doctor, and currently appeared as a young woman with blonde hair. Her companion, who was named Graham O'Brien, was a male, aged about fifty, with a lined face and gray, thinning hair. At this moment, they were both awestruck by what they witnessed outside the confines of the TARDIS. "Graham," the Doctor said softly, "you look upon intergalactic elegance."

Bathed in the violet light of a nearby nebula cloud, four star whales swam through space. Each was miles long, peaceful, glowing with wonderful colours, and simply wonderful to behold. "I once went on holiday to Scotland," Graham said. "While I was there, I went on a whale-watching tour. I remember, a full-grown humpback swam right by our boat and, a few minutes later, breached right in front of me...was so beautiful...not as beautiful as this though."

Graham then felt the Doctor's hand on his, and turned to look at her face. "I've watched all whales," she said to him, "on Earth, on Mars, on other planets, in interstellar space...They are all equally wonderful. I once saw a star whale that rescued the entire population of the UK...well, the _starship _UK." As the Doctor looked out at the gigantic leviathans, she looked momentarily sad. "When the very last of them dies, Graham, this universe will forever be more silent and lonely..."

A loud, incessant beeping suddenly began blasting out from behind. The Doctor pushed past Graham, and he hurried after her as she darted over to the round console in the middle of the spacious main control room of the TARDIS. "It's a distress call," the Doctor muttered as she examined the instrument panels. "From close by, too...in time and space. Holographic message...uploading now!"

A three-dimensional representation of a human figure suddenly appeared in front of the Doctor and Graham, and they both froze in shock and disbelief. The image spoke: "If anyone gets this, please come and help...I'm stranded here, wherever this is, and...I'm _scared_. Really scared. If I've done this right, you can track me to where I am with this message. Please...help!" The figure blurred, than vanished. But neither Graham nor the Doctor could have failed to recognise who it had been: The woman had worn black pants, a white, short-sleeved shirt unbuttoned slightly near the throat, with blonde hair and a sweet, beautiful face.

"Was that..." Graham stammered, "Was that...who I think it was?"

"We both saw who it looked like, " the Doctor responded, and then looked directly at him, her eyes wide. "We just got a call for help in an alien galaxy from Marilyn Monroe."


	2. Chapter 2

Since meeting the Doctor and leaving behind his old life in Sheffield for adventures in space and time, Graham had already encountered a number of well known historical individuals - Rosa Parks and King James I, to name just a couple - but he still felt thrown with amazement right now. Marilyn Monroe! THE Marilyn Monroe had just contacted him and the Doctor, in deep space! "Don't ask me how she's gotten herself way out here," the Doctor was saying as she checked the controls, "if it really is Marilyn. Could just be a hologram recreation, or an android copy, or a shapeshifting alien...we'll known soon enough Aha!" She looked up at Graham, her eyes and mouth wide with excitement. "Metebelis III! The message came from Metebelis III! Makes sense, we are in the Acteon Galaxy right now, after all. Oh, you'll love it, Graham! Blue! Everything's blue there, cos of the blue sun!"

"I'm just looking forward to meeting Marilyn Monroe," Graham told her. "She was a little bit before my time, but my mum and dad loved her films." He had a lot of fond memories of her: Monkeying around with Cary Grant in _Monkey Business_; seductively scheming to murder her husband in _Niagara_; adventuring across the Old West with Robert Mitchum in _River of No Return_; discovering she was still beautiful wearing glasses in _How to Marry a Millionaire_; and beguiling Tom Ewell in _The Seven Year Itch_.

"I met her husbands," the Doctor was saying. "Joe DiMaggio - his skills with a baseball bat came in handy against those Sontarans, I can tell you! And I got Arthur Miller's autograph. Heck, I were married to Marilyn myself! When I were a man, of course!"

Graham chuckled and shook his head in half-disbelief. "Well, I suppose I better let Ryan and Yaz know where we're going. Shame they've got food poisoning."

The Doctor grimaced guiltily. "Sorry about that. I really shouldn't have let them eat so much of that Draconian apple pie." As Graham walked off into the depths of the TARDIS, the Doctor worked the instruments on the console and remembered...Remembered being in a different body, holding hands and dancing with a goddess of the silver screen. The Doctor had worn a tuxedo, and Marilyn a pure white gown, and Marilyn had been happy, but it was a happiness touched by anxiety.

She had leaned close and whispered in the Doctor's ear: "When I was little, my grandmother tried to kill me. I was asleep, and she stuffed a pillow over me. They put her away...like they put my mother away. I sometimes wonder if that's it...why I sometimes feel so frightened. Like it's not just my life, but my sanity, that's in danger..." The Doctor's marriage to her had only been brief, less than a week. For Marilyn, that was. For the Doctor, it had been somewhat longer, owing to the complexities of time travel.

The Doctor was in the crowd that gathered at Madison Square Garden, New York, in March of 1955 to see Marilyn, sat astride a pink elephant, at the opening of the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus; she had been portraying 'The Day After New Year's Eve.' And the Doctor was among the crowd that gathered outside the gates of the Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles in the early afternoon of that day in August of 1962. He saw the small group of mourners that followed the coffin...saw Joe DiMaggio, grieving and broken, being supported by his son, as he walked away from Marilyn's funeral service which he had arranged. From the Doctor's point of view, that was the first time he had been anywhere near Marilyn...but both his hearts had ached nonetheless. Because he had felt the pain and loss that emanated from those who had known and cared for her.

When Graham returned to the console room, the Doctor turned to look at him with a grin, and said "Okay, Graham, here we are...Metebelis III!"


	3. Chapter 3

The Doctor had not exagerrated when she said that everything on Metebelis III was blue, Graham instantly realized as he stepped out of the TARDIS. Bathed in the light of the planet's sun, the trees, the flowers, the rocks, the earth and grass under his feet - all were a deep, rich blue. He stood in amazement, entranced by his surroundings. "Doc, this is wonderful!" he exclaimed.

"Isn't it just?" the Doctor replied as she emerged from the TARDIS after him, closing the door behind her. Graham quietly noted how the ship now blended in extremely well with its' current environment. Pausing to admire the breathtaking view, the Doctor said "You do have to be a bit careful of some of the local wildlife though, just warning you. But at least it's long before the era of the giant spiders."

Graham suddenly spun to look at her worriedly. "Hang on...giant spiders? You sure we're before them? I don't want to meet any more of them, I still haven't gotten over the last time!" He did not think he could ever forget the incident not too long ago when he, the Doctor, Ryan and Yaz had returned home to find the city infested with giant, mutated arachnids.

"Cross my hearts, Graham," the Doctor told him, "no scary spiders round here. We are long before humans brought them to this planet. Now come on...we got a famous movie star to find." She held up a hand, which held a small metal device which she examined intently. "I've got the signal," she said after a few seconds, then pointed with her other hand into the forest. "It's this way. Let's go!" And off she eagerly went, Graham sticking close by her.

As they trekked through the shadow-filled wood, the Doctor constantly checking her little contraption, Graham asked her "Marilyn Monroe wasn't her real name, was it?"

Without looking behind her at him, the Doctor answered "Quite right. Norma Jeane Mortenson was the name she was born with, and it was the name she went by for the first twenty years of her life, until film executives got her to change it to Marilyn Monroe - Marilyn after Marilyn Miller, the stage actress, and Monroe cos it had been her granny's maiden name." Graham thought then of how the Doctor could not have been born with the name 'Doctor'. Growing up on the Time Lord's home planet, she - or rather he - would have to have gone by another name up to a certain point. What _had _that name been? But that was one of the Doctor's great mysteries, the answer to which she kept always to herself. Would Graham ever know? He doubted it..."It weren't uncommon," she was continuing."You know what Cary Grant's real name was? Archibald Alec Leach." Graham had been about to enquire of her if she knew anything for definite about Marilyn's alleged relationships with John and Robert Kennedy, when she seemed to see something off to the left, gasped "Oh, that's briliant!", and skipped off in that direction.

"What is it?" asked Graham as he hurried after her. They had just gone a few feet when he saw what had attracted her: A nest of brightly glowing, blue stones on the ground amid the grass and ferns.

The Doctor squatted down in front of them, her face bathed in their radiance. "Graham," she said, "these are Metebelis crystals."

"Very pretty," remarked Graham as he squatted on the ground across from her. "Valuable, are they?"

"They can enhance psychic ability," the Doctor told him, "and break hypnotic trances. I once gave one to a friend as a wedding present. Had one myself not long ago, but I lost it in a bet with Jim the Fish." Looking up at Graham then, she saw that his eyes had left both her and the crystals, and were firmly locked on something behind her, and his expression was one of frozen terror. "The look currently on your face," she whispered, "is one used by Earth primates for nearly a million years of your time to signify the presense of extreme danger. You need to tell me now...what is behind us?"

Sweat was already beading on Graham's face as he spoke: "You know how earlier, I was scared of us bumping into giant, freaky spiders? Well...now I have something new to be terrified of, which doesn't normally grow this big where I come from." Slowly, almost agonizingly slowly, the Doctor turned her neck to look around...and saw a snake with a head as big as a sofa, and a long body as thick as a tree trunk, eyeing them both with the utmost hunger.


	4. Chapter 4

The snake was very hungry, and had roamed far in its' search for food. In the blue light it had slid through the vast forest, the foliage rustling softly against its' skin asit glided sinuously along the ground, ever alery and watchful for whatever it may seize and devour. Such was a lot of life on Metebelis III; at first glance it was beautiful, but as with so many worlds all over the universe, it had its' violent, predatory aspects.

The snake was growing tired, when it suddenly detected two individuals which would make ideal prey. It had no way of knowing, however, that the two bipeds it had fixed on were the adventurer in time and space called the Doctor, and one of her current companions, a man called Graham. And both of them had likewise seen the snake, and had frozen, debating what to do. The Doctor heard Graham's voice then: "When I say run...run!"

Not taking her eyes off of the snake, the Doctor hissed "If I remember right...that's my line!" Stricken with terror, Graham bolted, followed a quarter of a second later by the Doctor herself. Both of them were set on looking forward, because both knew that if they looked behind them, the sight of the huge serpent pursuing them with lightning speed would be their death. "Whoaaa!" the Doctor cried as the ground suddenly dipped beneath her feet. She slipped, and found herself rolling over and over down a steep hill. A short series of yells and grunts next to her told her that Graham had shared her mishap, and in a matter of seconds they both slid to a mildly painful, dirty stop at the bottom of the hill, splashed in the water of a small stream.

"Ow!" Graham exclaimed as he gingerly raised himself up from where he had fallen on his back. "Oh, I hope I ain't broken anything!"

The Doctor was looking up the slope they had both just rolled down as she said"Our troubles aren't over by a long shot." Graham did not need to follow her eyes to know that the giant snake had followed them, and was mere moments away from pouncing upon them. He tensed, screwing his eyes shut as he hears the monster's sibilant hiss...

And then the hiss became a brief, sharp gurgle, amid three dull thuds, followed by a heavier thud. Daring to open his eyes, Graham beheld the snake having rolled on to its' side on the muddy ground between himself and the Doctor, twitching in its' death throes as blood leaked thickly from its' flesh were it had been pierced by three spears. One more twich, one more short hiss, and it lay still. Turning around, he saw a group of three men watching them from across the other side of the small stream, All appeared to be humanoid, and dressed in primitive animal skins. One stepped tentatively forward, and said "Are you unharmed? We acted to save you from the slitherer."

It took the Doctor less than a second to bound to her feet and say "We're fine, thanks, been a lot worse! Really appreciate you rescuing us from the giant snake - though I do wish it'd been a bit less brutally done." Saying this, she looked at the slain reptile with faint sadness.

The primitive who had just spoken took a wary step forward, and said "Has the sky god summoned you?" Graham was long past being surprised at hearing aliens speak perfect English no matter where or when they landed, knowing that his telepathic link to the TARDIS translated any language.

The Doctor looked the tribesman who had spoken straight in the eye as she answered. "And what know you of this sky god?"

"It fell from the stars earlier this night," the man replied, "trailing fire and roaring monstrously! Its' skin is hard like stone, though it is smoother and shines! It sleeps now, speaking not! You are like no others we have seen before...did you follow the god?"

"Oh, yes," the Doctor suddenly said, "we certainly did! In fact, we are its' high priests, come from beyond the blackness to do it honour!" She gave Graham a sideways glance then. "Is that not our divine mission, O Wondrous and Wise Graham?"

Latching on to the Doctor's meaning, Graham replied "Yeah...Oh, yes, mightily! We follow the burning god from the sky!"

"Then we beseech you to follow us," the tribesman said, "and we shall lead you to the one you seek, that you may teach us its' rites. Follow!"

As he and the Doctor accompanied the primitives through the gloom, Graham whispered to the Doctor "Are we doing the right thing here, Doc? I mean, what about Marilyn?"

"I think we might well still be on her trail," the Doctor whispered back. "And besides - we've got no other way of finding her now." She held up the tracking device she had brought from the TARDIS, revealing it to have been broken open in their escape from the snake, its' innards soaked in mud and water, rendered useless.

"Oh, well," sighed Graham, "off we go then."


	5. Chapter 5

"We're actually really lucky," the Doctor quietly said to Graham as they both followed their new friends through the woods, "not many tribes on this planet are this friendly to strangers. One time I was here, they didn't just throw spears and axes at me, they chased me all the way back to the TARDIS and threw axes and spears at it too...poor old girl! It were lucky I were travelling alone at the time."

"Let's just hope we don't get spears chucked at us at any point while we're here!" muttered Graham as the lights of a settlement became visible through the trees just ahead of them. Another minute, and they stood on a patch of open ground amid a collection of mud and wattle huts, surrounded by a crowd of highly curious villagers. The ones who had brought the Doctor and Graham introduced them as exalted servants of the new god, having followed it down from heaven, and gasps spread through the crowd; some even dropped to their knees and bowed their heads.

"Hello there!" the Doctor said with yet another of her big grins to a group of young children that approached her. "What have we got in here then, eh?" Digging through one of her coat pockets, she withdrew a brightly coloured yoyo which she proceeded to bounce up and down from her finger to the children's delight. Next moment a woman came over to her and, kneeling, held up a wooden bowl of what appeared to be stew, and a spoon. "Is this for me?" the Doctor asked the woman. "Oh, you're so lovely! Mmm, it smells good!" Taking the spoon, she dipped it into the stew, then put it in her mouth. A moment later, she said "Very tasty indeed! Thank you!"

The woman then offered the bowl to Graham, but remembering Ryan's food poisoning on consuming an alien dish, he said "Thanks, but...I've just eaten! Besides, I'm sure you worked hard for that food; we don't want to take it all off you!"

One of the men who had brought them to the village now said "High ones, now you have experienced our village's hospitality, do you wish to see the star god?"

"Yes, right!" Graham replied, doing his best to sound like a mighty emissary of a deity. "Lead on!" Another moment and the travelers from the TARDIS were being led by their guides on yet another journey through the indigo-lit woodland. All kept a close eye out for more giant snakes, or any other predatory lifeforms which might endanger them. Shortly, the trees thinned out, and the party began ascending a steep, grass-covered hill. Graham was panting when they reached the top, but then he looked down the hill's other side and saw, at the bottom, the crashed hulk of a large spacevessel, venting clouds of smoke. Lights still shone here and there, and a faint hum issued from it, so it was not yet completely dead...and neither, hopefully, were its' occupants.

Facing their guides, the Doctor said "Okay, thanks for everything you've done, but from here on, me and my companion go alone. Go back to your village, and wait for us. Don't worry, we'll be fine." Bowing, the villagers scurried off into the darkness, leaving the Doctor and Graham to troop down to the wreck. They were just a few feet from it, and after a brief search, had located the main hatch.

Knowing that spacecraft often had external cameras, Graham called out "Hello? Er...Marilyn? Miss Monroe? Are you in there? We got your distress call, we've come to help. Can you hear us in there? Can you see us?" In another moment, he and the Doctor heard a sharp clanking noise, and then watched as, with a mechanical hiss, the hatch peeled back and slowly lowered itself to the ground to form a ramp, leading directly into the ship's interior. They remained where they stood as the seconds ticked by. Then, from within, a shadow appeared, moving slowly closer. It became a slender human shape, and then, looking down at the Doctor and Graham, stood Marilyn Monroe in the flesh.


	6. Chapter 6

Adopting what she hoped was a reassuring smile, the Doctor took a few steps toward the woman in front of them and announced "Hi. I'm the Doctor, and this is Graham. How can we help you?"

Marilyn - or the person who appeared to be her - stood at the top of the ramp and looked down at them both somewhat warily for a moment. Then she said "Follow me." As the Doctor and Graham were walking up the ramp, she looked at the Doctor. "You called yourself the Doctor?" she said. "Funny...I once knew a guy who called himself that. It's weird, but...something about you reminds me of him. I can't explain it." Seeming to dismiss the matter, she turned round then and commenced walking.

"Excuse me," Graham said as he and the Doctor followed her down the corridor, "but...you are Marilyn Monroe, right? I mean, the actual, real Marilyn Monroe?"

In front of them, Marilyn halted suddenly. Seconds went by, and then she faced them. "I know what you're thinking," she finally said. "'How did I get here? Shouldn't I be - '" She broke off before she could complete her sentence, shut her eyes a brief moment, and took a deep breath. She drrmed to shake her anxiety off then. "Please, just come with me...and I'll try to make you understand."

"How have you been keeping while you've been stuck here?" the Doctor asked her as they resumed their pace. "It might interest you to know your ship's already being worshipped by the locals as a god."

"I've seen them on the, uh...scanners," Marilyn replied without turning round. "I've been too scared to step outside on my own. All this is still pretty new to me. See, I'm not alone here." As she spoke, the three of them passed through a doorway into a room which the Doctor and Graham instantly recognised as some kind of infirmary. Lying on a bed next to a bank of machines was the ship's other occupant: An unconscious man with adhesive patches covering his right temple and all along his right arm where his sleeve had been torn off.

The Doctor approached and quickly examined the machines monitoring the man's condition. "How long has he been like this?" she enquired.

Marilyn hugged herself and, not taking her eyes off of the man on the bed, responded "Since we landed. There was a...an energy overload, he said it was. He'd only just managed to land us as best he could when he got hit by these sparks, and then...I patched him up as best I could, but I don't know what to do for him, or how to fix this thing, so I sent the message. He showed me how earlier, but that's it!"

"But who is he?" Graham asked, looking down with her at the unconscious figure.

The Doctor approached Marilyn and, looking deep into her eyes, said "I think it's time we all knew exactly what was going on here...don't you?" Her tone was not unkind, yet behind it could be detected a steely force which could not be denied.

Marilyn looked at the Doctor, then at the floor, and then at Graham. "You asked me if I was the real Marilyn Monroe," she said to him. Addressing both of them now, she continued. "Well, I am...but I'm not. I died on Earth, in 1962. But because of the man lying in front of you, I'm alive here and now. I'm...I'm a clone."

Hearing these words, the Doctor tooka small intake of breath and exhaled. "Ahh, now it looks like it's starting to make sense."

Again looking at the unconscious male, Marilyn went on. "I remember waking up one day, and there he was. I was in a strange place, I was terrified. Then he appeared, and he told me he'd taken samples from...the _other _me, and had grown me from them, because it was the only way to save my life without...damaging history, and that...I was supposed to die there in 1962. At first I thought he was insane, or worse, that I was; that I'd finally gone the way of my mother and grandmother. But then I started to remember some of the things that the guy who called himself the Doctor had told me. About time, and existence. I told him to prove what he was saying, to show me where my other self, the one that was supposed to die, was buried. I wouldn't accept it otherwise. I had to see it, even though the thought frightened me so much! So he took me to where she lay..."

Overcome by emotion, a single tear fell from her eye and trailed down her cheek. The Doctor and Graham could fully understand what she was feeling; this kind of knowledge would shake anyone's soul. To Marilyn, Graham said "You stayed with him. Why?"

"Saul - that's his name -" Marilyn answered, "he told me that, in the time he comes from, I'm still remembered. In looking at my life, he always felt sorry for me, felt I should have had more. I had money, I had fame, movies, a career...but never real happiness. So, one day, he decided to save me the best way he could. I've grown close to him, perhaps closer than any other man I've ever known. Seeing as how I can't go back to my old life, I may as well see what he can show me. And he wants to show me." She looked imploringly at the Doctor. "Now do you understand? Can you help us? _Will _you?"

The Doctor's face was passive as she responded "After what you have told me..." She fell silent then,her eyes not wavering or blinking, the seconds going by ominously...then, bursting into a sudden wide grin, she exclaimed "Of course I will! What, did you think I wouldn't? Right, first I'll have a go at fixing Saul's condition, and then I'll have a look at your engines. That Doctor bloke you knew, Marilyn? I knew him too. He loved to help those genuinely in need...and so do I!"

OOOOOOOO

As dawn broke over the hills of Metebelis III, the Doctor and Graham watched as the repaired ship carrying Marilyn and a fully recovered Saul flew off into the sky and out of sight. As they had been preparing to leave, Marilyn had shaken hands with them. She had even kissed Graham on the cheek, which was not something he would be forgetting any time soon. "You got a whole new, amazing life ahead of you," the Doctor told her. "Make sure you live it to its' full, and don't repeat any past mistakes."

Marilyn smiled. "I'll have to. You see, it's not just Saul I have to live for now. I'm going to have a baby!"

The pair from the TARDIS were still struck with amazement right now, when Graham suddenly exclaimed "Oh, God! Ryan and Yaz!"

The Doctor's eyes bulged, she clapped a hand over her mouth,and then gasped "I forgot about them!"

When they finally made it back to the TARDIS, Graham having tried unsuccesfully to call Ryan on his mobile, they were surprised to see Ryan and Yaz emerge at a run from the surrounding wood. "Doctor!" Yaz shouted as she caught sight of them.

"We gotta get in the TARDIS, now!" yelled Ryan.

"Why?" asked Graham. "What've you two been up to now?"

The deafening roar of some huge predator, and the crashing of trees from back the way Yaz and Ryan had come, was the only answer any of them needed. "TARDIS, inside!" the Doctor quickly ordered. Once the four of them had dashed through and closed the doors, the police box-shaped craft that was the same hue as the rest of the planet Metebelis III uttered its' familiar groaning as it slipped away into the Time Vortex.

OOOOOOOO

Dressed in a stylish black dress that perfectly fit her beautiful figure, Marilyn Monroe entered the bar as Graham O'Brien watched. He sat alone in his room in the depths of the TARDIS, watching the images on the television screen in front of him. The Doctor had managed to find it for him, and right now he watched _The Misfits_, which he knew to be Marilyn's last completed film before tragedy intervened. This was the part where she first met Clark Gable's character; this had been his last performance too. Graham thought about how he had once believed he knew how Marilyn's story ended, just as everyone of his time still believed. But his travels with the Doctor had again surprised him. He could still feel Marilyn's kiss, and felt joy in knowing that her story was not entirely over.


End file.
